Double Crown Chicken Wings: Amazing
I was really really craving bone marrow all last week, and by Friday, my hunger had reached the breaking point. So before seeing a midnight showing of "The Room" with a bunch of friends in the East Village, my buddy and I went downtown in search of bone marrow. I looked on Menupages for bone marrow dishes, and noticed that Double Crown served a miso glazed marrow with orange marmalade and toast. It was also conveniently located across the street from DBGB, which serves a fantastic marrow dish with mustard seeds and Katz's pastrami.
Reaching the Bowery Restaurant District (or you could call the area around East Houston and Bowery E-HoBo), we found that DBGB was packed (as expected). So was Double Crown, and we were quoted an hour-long wait. Luckily, we slid into two open seats at the corner of the bar. My buddy volunteered that he'd been drinking since 3pm to every gorgeous girl within earshot while I desperately tried to get the bartender's attention. I ordered almost immediately after getting the menu-- bone marrow and... chicken wings?
Served "Szechuan style" ($10) on the snacks menu, the chicken wings were the surprise of the night. I was skeptical, but intrigued (and needed something substantial + cheap to go with the marrow). I do not exaggerate when I say that these were in the top 3 best wings I have ever eaten. Completely unexpected. We were served 8 wings that looked like Korean fried chicken wings, with their telltale crispy shells. Coating the wings was essentially the common Szechuan dressings containing chile oil, Szechuan peppercorn, soy, sugar and sometimes ginger made into a wing sauce. These were awesome.... I could have eaten about 50. Are these a secret? I can't believe I haven't heard anyone else rave about them, but I would definitely go back to Double Crown for the wings alone.
My only complaint is the side of celery and carrots with... nothing. What the hell? Don't give me celery and carrots if you aren't going to serve me a delicious blue cheese dressing to dip it in. My buddy gave the bartender a crazy look as he tried to pass by, blurting out "WHERE'S DA BLUE CHEESE?" The bartender shook his head no and ran off.
My lips were still tingling from the Szechuan peppercorns when the miso glazed bone marrow arrived. It was good, but a letdown compared to the wings. The miso glaze added a nice salty richness, and the orange marmalade had a complex taste. Eaten all together, it tasted like orange duck, with an extra complexity from the five spice in the marmalade. Unfortunately, the brioche was too sweet for the rest of the ingredients (I already have the marmalade, I want a neutral bread dammit!).
Part of a post on my blog (www.lawandfood.blogspot.com)
Seriously though, check out these waaangs. Anyone else tried them?
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Double Crown
316 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
DBGB
299 Bowery, New York, NY 10003
By ChiefHDB
on Jun 28, 2010 04:36 PM
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sounds great; looks like the rest of the menu is good too. anyone had the sunday dinner before? seems like a good one as well.
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I read good things about the Sunday nonya dinners on yelp and immaculate infatuation: http://www.immaculateinfatuation.com/...
Definitely looks interesting and worth trying at $35, especially compared to the pricey regular menu. I'll probably check it out (and get more wings).
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I had the wings and they were pretty good but nothing to write home about. A little too sweet for my liking and needing more peppercorn but I suppose my palette is not what they were aiming to please. That said they were fried really well with a very crunchy exterior that held up to the sauce. My other issue was that they only gave 8 drumettes and no lower wing pieces. The double boned section is my favourite part and was absent.
Other than that it was an adequate restaurant, nothing mind blowing. The bone marrow was good though the marmalade was too powerful and I ended up not using it on my second piece. The foie gras was good and served with a nice warm nut bread. Calamari was poorly fried and was a miss. The pickled watermelon rind was a hit on a sweltering night and cut the fried dishes rather nicely. We had a few other non descript dumpling type dishes that were just sort of meh.
Decent small plates, I didn't try anything bigger. The place is very "sceney" so take that as you will. Not sure I would run back for the food though.
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"Seriously though, check out these waaangs."
That doesn't mean what you think it means.
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Haha. I was going for the accent I heard growing up in the Midwest. It sounded just like wangs.
@MVNYC, I think what had surprised me the most was how well they were fried. I think I got a combo of wings and drumettes, but I honestly can't remember for sure. The sauce was on the sweet, but I thought it was balanced well by the heat.
You're right about the bone marrow though. The marmalade was good on its own, but was too strong for the marrow (plus the brioche added even more sweetness). I'm probably not going to run back, but a good option for the area and that Sunday dinner looks really interesting.
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